The above-mentioned type of door outer handle structure for a vehicle is described in, for example, JP 2012-92640 A. The door opening prevention mechanism includes a lever member rotatable from a set rotational position at least to a retracted rotational position in a vehicle inside direction, and an urging/biasing member configured to urge the lever member toward the retracted rotational position. The lever member is set to be held in the set rotational position when the outer handle is located in the door closing position under a state in which the inertial force does not act, rotate in the vehicle inside direction from the set rotational position to be moved to the retracted rotational position by an urging force of the urging member in an early stage of an operation of the outer handle from the door closing position to the door opening position when the operation is performed under a state in which the inertial force does not act, rotate in the vehicle outside direction from the set rotational position to be moved to a locked rotational position against the urging force of the urging member when the inertial force acts (or is set to stay in the set rotational position against the urging force of the urging member when the inertial force acts), so as to restrict movement of the component in the door opening direction when the lever member is located in the set rotational position or the locked rotational position, and allow the movement of the component in the door opening direction when the lever member is located in the retracted rotational position.
In the door outer handle structure for a vehicle described in JP 2012-92640 A, a part of the lever member of the door opening prevention mechanism is configured to be engageable with and retractable from a projection provided to a connection lever that is one of the components of the link mechanism. When the lever member is located in the set rotational position or the locked rotational position, the part of the lever member is present on/within a movement locus of the projection provided to the connection lever of the link mechanism in the door opening direction so as to restrict the movement of the projection in the door opening direction.